“Follow Me II!

“Follow Me II!(Mt.9:9-13).
Today we are reflecting on the call of Matthew in the gospel according to Matthew. Matthew is sitting at the tax collector’s booth. Jesus tells him, “Follow me.” Matthew gets up and follows him. Jesus is having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” come and eat with him and his disciples.
The Pharisees see this and ask Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus replies, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew may have been following up on Jesus’ ministry and Jesus too may have noticed his interest – not as if any of these mattered. But to see Jesus immediately having dinner at Matthew’s house leads us to such postulates above. Tax collectors were Jews but were considered to be sinners because they degraded themselves by collecting taxes for the Caesar. “Clean and perfect” people like Pharisees did not interact with tax collectors who were sinners. This is a bone of contention even today concerning the interaction between Christians and sinners. Every nonbeliever is a potential believer.
Jesus does not discriminate. By the way, how righteous are the righteous whose righteousness is in their own eyes? The whole of the New Testament is directed to believers, yet only a tiny percentage concerns unbelievers. To think that a bulk of the teaching is a call to godly living is proof that we are being delusional when we claim that we are righteous to the point that we do not have to mix with those we consider sinners.
We are struggling everyday, fighting temptation and asking God not to take his Spirit from us, and to renew our spirits so that his grace should truly be sufficient for us.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is very categoric on this when he says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick…For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” This does not mean that the Pharisees are healthy and do not need a doctor; rather, they have not gone for checkup to know their health situation. Again, instead of relying on God’s free grace in Christ they depend on burnt sacrifices as a means of salvation. As such, they remain in sin.
Like Matthew, may the Holy Spirit help us to immediately get to work as soon as we respond to the call of the Lord.
Weekend prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus Christ for coming for sinners like us. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
24/01/2025.